Starting a new job

So, I am sensing that my more junior colleague at NB is in competition with me. He seems to be challenging me on every step I take and on all work I've been handing in. He has carried my role for the last couple of months to bridge the gap while they hired someone (me). I am far more senior than him in my industry. He has maybe 1-2 years of SEO experience. I am thinking that he may have wanted my position and a promotion in the company. I am guessing here, but it is what I am picking up on because he's picking apart my work. Great. Now I have a colleague in competition with me.

Is he making valid suggestions or just totally random complaints?

He’s nitpicking my work.

I can think of at least five ways you could respond. I don't know you, your coworker, your situation, or the company at all, so of course these are all just generic:

1. Thank him for his suggestions/comments, incorporate them into your work product, let the rest of your team know of his contribution, and assign him a little more responsibility -- for example, give him more to "nitpick" for you.

2. If you find some of his suggestions/comments useful and others not so much, treat the more useful ones as in 1. above, and the less useful ones as in 3. below.

3. For any suggestions/comments that you're sure won't work as well as what you'd proposed, thank him as always, then go a little out of your way to explain to him why you think your version is going to work better. He's still free to make suggestions, of course, but you're raising the bar. In order for you to pay serious attention, he's going to have to improve the quality of his criticisms.

4. For any of his suggestions where you recognize that your version could have been better but so could his, thank him as always. Let him know that there's still room for improvement and ask him to suggest yet another version.

If you can't carry out one of the above convincingly then you may in effect be defaulting to this last one:

5. Make it clear to him that he's junior to you, you have more experience than he has, you find his nitpicking annoying, and he needs to stop immediately if not sooner -- or else! As I said, I don't know you or him or the company but I give this strategy about a 5% chance of working out the way you'd like. More likely, he's going to jump to some silly conclusions like that at least one of you might feel insecure; that at least one of you finds the other a threat; that the way to neutralize you and/or keep you at a safe distance is by nitpicking your work every chance he gets; and that at worst, how you react when he succeeds in pushing your buttons is sure to make for some great gossip among him and his friends both inside and outside the company.

@FooZe, thank you for such detailed suggestions! I appreciate this, and the effort you gave.

I have implemented #3 already. I also came up with my own for one of his nitpicky comments, which was to validate his concerns, and then alleviate them by providing supportive documentation to back up my research and approach. He had expressed the concern about using ChatGPT4 for my research.

#5 I wouldn't dare to try. I am a freelancer looking to get hired in five months. I can't cause waves with anyone internally if I want to get hired.

I am going to try maybe one of your other suggestions next time he does this.

But, yeah, it's annoying as heck. It's happened at least 5 times so far, and all in a short period of time.

Is your company supporting your use of ChatGPT4 for research? If yes, you could respond to him that you appreciate his concern and you understand where he’s coming from (many people and companies oppose to or in favor of seriously limiting use of AI for research) but since company doesn’t object it you’ll continue using it.

Also it seems that agency doesn’t care if he’s bugging you. You said you complained about him but here he keeps doing it. So if they don’t do anything about it, you have to figure out how not to let it stress you. Thank him for his concern and tell him you’ll look into it. Then do what you think is right.

If agency or your boss don’t like your work, they’d let you know. Him not liking it is irrelevant. That’s just his individual and subjective opinion.

My boss has not told me I can’t use ChatGPT.

The agency kid I spoke about and complained about is someone different than the NB junior colleague nitpicker. Two males are annoying me. The agency has dealt with their team member swiftly and effectively. The NB male colleague I will not complain about or confront because that’s creating trouble for me and inappropriate. He’s the nitpicker.

Just ignore him if you can. Annoying coworkers cannot be avoided unfortunately. Theres always someone annoying out there. As long as quality of your work is top notch, one colleague’s opinion won’t make it difference. He’s not your boss. He’s entitled to his opinion but it doesn’t really matter in a long run

I'm sick and tired of males in my industry either insulting my experience level and intelligence OR trying to tear me down. I am so tired of it.

I am proposing a MASSIVE sitewide change to the NB website (and ALL other international websites) that will drastically improve their traffic and revenue. It's a HUGE opportunity that I found that they are missing out on simply because they have not had a true SEO expert on the team. The opportunity I discovered is not rocket science and is pretty obvious (to me). It's very basic level SEO that they've missed. The woman prior to me in my role wasn't exactly an SEO guru or expert and somehow missed this opportunity to improve website traffic and revenue. Their biggest competitor, Nike, implements on their website the exact strategy I am proposing for our website.

My proposal is in the works (I am prepping a powerpoint presentation), and higher ups are already catching wind of this through various emails. I have to go through a few rounds of approvals since it's a massive sitewide change that will also impact all international sites.

IF it gets approved and implemented correctly (and I will ensure it is done correctly), I think I will end up getting hired full time. That's my goal. I want to make a positive and very noticeable impact, and I think I've got it in the bag with this strategy.

I wonder if that would change actual appearance of the site? Or it would only effect SEO stuff? I actually like how straight forward and clear cut us NB website. I don’t like Nike website, too many bells and whistles. It’s exciting you are undertaking such major task! Good luck!

Spoiler: VENT.
I am looking at my job board search which is different now than the last 9 mos for some valid reasons. But, I have to redo the resume now and it feels like totally starting over. My work is not professional except for the 15 yrs I held a Massage Therapy license. I want to go back into the office world but working out of it for so long has me stumbling around in office jobs really feeling pent up and awkward etc. Too many random conversations with co workers which I could now live without.

Now, I have settled on working out of my home office and looking for remote work which is a different world I believe. Please share anybody that knows about remote work. I think it might even be more competitive!
Acck! I got my meds stabilized only over a year ago and immediately had to launch into a job search. My life's Achilles heel. It hurts. Even the counselor can't seem to help too much. I fired my job coach last year. I could swing half a year of retail last year to get out while I kept looking. I feel I have made such a mess of this now.

My parents have been helping me out with funds but now my Dad has understandably grown inpatient with my lack of employment a year later. My self esteem is almost in the toilet after this. I know things will open up for me once this gets settled. I pray and try to walk the path each day. I guess I can't push this any faster than its going. Okay. Deep breath.
Cheers~

Not really. I am simply adding a few additional words to the page titles, which you only view in Google's search results, and a page heading. underneath each product name. So while it's a massive undertaking for SEO, it should not change the look and feel of the site.

And thanks!!

Wow, so this is odd but very interesting.

You know how everyone's going ga ga over the recent Barbie movie? Well, pink is trending way up as a result, so my company beefed up their pink apparel page, I worked on it for SEO, and we launched a revamped page today.

My boss gave ME credit for the idea, when I believe it was my more junior male colleague who pointed out that searches for pink clothes and shoes was trending way up on the website. I mentioned this to my boss, telling her I believe it was his observation and idea, and that he should get the credit.

Well, instead, my boss gave me credit in an email to a female way high up in the chain of command who oversees online sales. I wonder why she did that, even after I pointed out it wasn't my idea or observation?!?

I got the sense that she wanted to point out to this high up female what we are working on for SEO, and to shine a spotlight on my work in particular. It made me paranoid, thinking that perhaps they're questioning why they have an SEO expert on staff, and my boss felt like she should shine a light on our work???? I don't know.

Now I have to watch the performance of this revamped "pink" page and hope and pray that it gains more traffic and revenue than it had before I worked on it. I did the SEO for the page in a hurry, and I worry it won't perform as well as it should had I taken more time to evaluate the page more thoroughly. It was a rushed, urgent job and they wanted the page launched ASAP. OY.

You are very good, very confident came to the company, with your approach I think you will succeed!
The worst question is not asked, so always ask if you don't understand something, everyone in the company is interested that you grow together and progress. Everything will be fine, I wish you good luck!

Thank you!

So, I screwed something up, and it was my first real project that launched on the website! ARGH! I did a rather rushed job on it because my boss said it was urgent and they wanted to get the new page live on the website ASAP. So, I did not perform due diligence as I should have with my keyword research, and I targeted the wrong keywords! Now the page isn't ranking at all in Google, but IS receiving plenty of traffic once people are on the website browsing.

I adjusted the keyword strategy and am waiting for Google to crawl and re-index the page so I can see how it is now ranking for my target keyword.

I have my 1:1 meeting with my boss today and have to give her an update on this page's performance. I am going to have to confess that the initial targeting was off-based and that I have modified the strategy as a result. However, there is still no guarantee that this page will rank #1 for the new target keyword due to what is being sold on this page.

I am SO frustrated with myself. Had I taken the time to more fully assess the keyword strategy, this would not have happened and I would have given a very different recommendation to the team involved in launching this new page.

And, I don't want my boss to now lose faith or trust in my judgment. I need to tell her the truth, and that my initial assessment was inaccurate.

SUCKY since it's the first real small project I've been given and I messed it up.

We all make mistakes. I think all you can do really is learn your lesson and spend more time checking. Don't tell her it’s because it was urgent or anything. Just accept the blame.

Did they expect it to be #1 all of a sudden? It’s a bit extreme. If that’s about pink merchandise, they don’t even sell that much pink stuff. If they just wanted an improvement, I hope it improves after you made these new changes.

You are HUMAN. WE ALL ARE.

Barbie pink - At my job, some of my hotels have made "Barbie" rooms - all Barbie pink including walls/decor. This is something that kids AND adults seem to want. I haven't seen the movie yet but heard good things about it and I definitely had my Barbie time when I was young. My goal was Barbie's Dream House but I think the best I did was the Barbie van....lol

Interesting if I type “pink shoes” or other kind of pink merchandise every type of shoe website pop up Adidas Nike Kate Spade you name it. No New Balance. Not like far on the list but like not at all.

It could be because they don’t have a lot but if you type “new balance pink shoes” then it does pop up so they have enough to pop up. But then Skechers were very far on the list and they for sure have pink shoes. Something they aren’t doing?

Interesting that Nike pops up in every type of shoe search for me but it’s not like it is customized for me because I never ever buy their stuff or ever search for Nike. They don’t fit me right

This stuff is interesting